Leonardo DiCaprio donates $5 million to Amazon fires

Ago
26
2019

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Oscar winner and longtime environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio has donated $5 million dollars to help preserve the Amazon rainforest and combat wildfires. The pledge was made through Earth Alliance, the actor’s climate change-focused organization that was started in July.

DiCaprio’s donation specifically came via Earth Alliance’s newly launched Amazon Forest Fund. According to the outspoken actor, the fund’s mission is to “help local partners and the indigenous communities on the front lines protecting the Amazon,” including entities such as Instituto Associacao Floresta Protegida (Kayapo) and Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB).

Those on the front lines have been contending with 74,000 reported fires this year — a noted 84% surge from 2018. It’s believed the fires are a result of mass deforestation by cattle ranchers.

“Scientists and conservationists attribute the accelerating deforestation to President Jair Bolsonaro, who issued an open invitation to loggers and farmers to clear the land after taking office in January,” DiCaprio wrote on Instagram in a re-post from Rainforest Alliance.